Under his spell
by solveariddle
Summary: Norma is trapped in an unhappy marriage and unable to free herself of it until she meets someone who will change her life. / My Normero fairytale for Halloween.


**A/N:** This is my Bates Halloween fairytale. It's not a classic Halloween story but still different from my other stories. I'd say you need an open mind to enjoy this. ;)

Norma and Caleb are not related in this story. And a hint for the Normero shippers: Don't let the beginning fool you. Be patient. All good things come to those who wait...

 **Disclaimer:** Bates Motel and its characters belong to A&E as well as the dialogue taken from 1x01, 4x03 and 4x08.

* * *

Once upon a time there was a town named Red Pine Bay. Its inhabitants were widely known for their kindness. When you went for a stroll around town, there were smiling faces everywhere as well as laughter. The sun was shining on most days throughout the year, a lush vegetation smartening the already breathtaking landscapes up. Even strangers who only passed through were full of praise for what seemed to be some kind of paradise.

Then he came along. Caleb Calhoun. The sky darkened on the day he set foot in town. Soon the warmth of the sun became a distant memory, replaced by rain and storms. Plants withered and fields scorched despite the rain, obscure figures crowding the streets. The constant cawing of ravens announced what was obvious for everyone by then: The small town was stricken with doom. People were afraid, whispering behind closed doors. _Is he the devil? I heard his shadow has horns._ There was no more laughter, no more smiling faces. And when Caleb Calhoun eventually was appointed as sheriff, the townsfolk plunged into blank despair. _What are we going to do? How can we defeat him?_

Some brave souls conspired to drum him out of town, but the sheriff had a secret weapon. His wife Norma. She was an ethereal beauty, her eyes the color of a light blue no one had ever seen before. Wherever she went, people immediately fell under her spell. Her aura made you forget about all the bad things in life – about the miserable weather, the rotten harvest, the loitering guises. If Caleb was the devil, then Norma was an angel or a witch or something in between. Either way, whenever someone tried to come up with a plan to get rid of Caleb, Norma magically appeared and any plans were forgotten. They stood no chance against the man who was their demise as long as he had her.

Caleb and Norma had two sons. Rumor had it that her first born, Dylan, was the result of a high school love and that his father had died much too young in a car accident. A mere 19 years old and already a widow, Norma met Caleb although no one understood why she was with him, why she had married him in the first place. Their best guess was that he was the father of her younger son, Norman, so that she felt obligated to stay with him, at least until her son would be of age. They couldn't be more off the mark.

Norman wasn't Caleb's son. As much as Caleb always had been wanting to have children of his own with Norma, it wasn't meant to be and in parts the reason why he had become the bitter and cruel man he was these days. Norman was born after they had married, but the boys had the same father; Norma had already been pregnant when they met. Without a job, family or friends to turn to for help, and with a toddler who was seriously ill, suffering from meningitis, Norma was beyond desperate when she literally ran into Caleb on her way to the emergency room although she had no insurance and no money to pay any treatment whatsoever. Caleb was her savior. He had money, fell in love with her, and the rest was history.

No one knew that in that fateful night right before Norma ran into Caleb, she had prayed at the bedside of her sick child, had promised to endure anything life would throw at her, take on any burden without complaint, sell her soul to the devil, if only her child would get well again, if only both of her children would be healthy. Dylan's medical condition threatened not only his own life but also hers and the one of her unborn child. Caleb seemed to be a gift from heaven. He was stubborn and quick-tempered, but his heart was in the right place. He changed for the worse, though, when life became difficult, when he realized he couldn't father a child of his own, lost his job, and eventually aligned himself with dark forces.

Norma had been considering to leave him on and off, but it wasn't until an especially nasty fight that she discerned she couldn't. Her inability to get away from him had nothing to do with indecisiveness or fear of the unknown. She just couldn't. It was at that time that Norma accepted she actually _had_ sold her soul to the devil. She would never be able to leave Caleb. It was the price she had to pay for two healthy sons. She had such beautiful sons. And here they were, alive and kicking. It had to be enough.

And in a way it was. Norma loved her sons more than anything; two boys that couldn't be more different. At 16 years, Dylan was already taller than his mother, often accompanying her when she ran errands to help her. He was the epitome of a good son – reasonable, a diligent student, wanted to go to college. Norman, on the contrary, was a troubled kid. Only 14 years old, he was already smoking and drinking, skipping classes. Every attempt of his mother and elder brother to bring him to his senses had failed so far. And yet, or because, Norma loved him even more than Dylan, and despite his versatile character, the boy also seemed to love his mother deeply. So maybe not all hope was lost.

Aside from the love for her sons, however, Norma was profoundly unhappy. The family lived out-of-town in the house nearby the Seafairer Motel, a motel that was a facade for money laundering; guests rarely stayed there. Her sons were growing up much too fast, Caleb was rarely home, what basically was a blessing, but when he was, he was drunk or angry, his touch sickening her. Norma had thought she could do it, that's what she had promised to whomever it had been who had sent her Caleb. But she couldn't. She was lonely; her life was falling apart.

Plus there were the blackouts. They started when they moved to Red Pine Bay and Caleb's moods got even worse. At first Norma thought she had been sleep walking when she woke up on the kitchen floor one morning. But it was more than that. She did things during her blackouts she couldn't remember afterwards, even talked to Dylan or Norman, thank God never to Caleb. He didn't know about the blackouts and her sons kept her secret.

There had been an incident with a knife that scared Norma to death. If it hadn't been for Dylan's determined intervention, someone might have gotten hurt. It was the middle of the night and she was standing in the hallway upstairs with a knife. Dylan grabbed her shoulders and shook her until she came around. Why did she have a knife? What did she want to do? And what if Dylan hadn't needed to use the bathroom, hadn't seen her? Norma had no answers, the thought that it could happen again any time driving her crazy.

It felt as if Caleb's rottenness was rubbing off on her, but consulting a doctor, talking about it to anyone aside from her sons was no option. What would she say? _I think my husband is the devil. I am unable to leave him because I traded my soul in for the health of my sons more than a decade ago. But now his presence is slowly but surely tainting me and I need to escape._ They would commit her, would take her sons away from her, or worse, leave them with their step-father. Norma was devastated. She was trapped and there was no way out.

* * *

Then, on a rainy day with an upcoming thunderstorm, two things happened at once.

In her house, Norma sat at the kitchen table, crying. She'd had a blackout the night before. There hadn't been another knife incident, but the blackouts were coming at shorter intervals. It was frightening.

"What am I going to do, Dylan?"

They were the only ones in the house. Caleb was out, doing whatever he was doing these days, probably using his position as sheriff to do illegal business, and Norman was God-knows-where. Dylan took her hand.

"You need to see a doctor, mom. Your blackouts are getting worse."

"I know, but I can't," Norma wailed. "Norman and you are still minor. They will think I'm crazy and take you away from me."

"You're not crazy. This..." Dylan made a gesture that included the house but meant her entire life. " _This_ makes you crazy; staying with _him_ is crazy. Let's move out. I can do casual jobs after school. You can get a job. We can make a living on our own. I will help you."

Norma smiled wistfully, moved by the devotion of her son. "You're such a good boy, Dylan, but I can't."

"Why not?" He was getting frustrated and she couldn't blame him.

"I just…" Norma exhaled. How could she explain the unexplainable? Dylan had read Goethe's Faust at school some weeks ago. Maybe she could use it as reference. _Do you remember that book about the man who sold his soul to the devil?_ But that was a book and this was real life. Would Dylan believe her if she told him the truth? Was it even the truth? Maybe she was crazy. "I can't," she said again, and this time, her words had a finality that prevented Dylan from asking any further questions.

So they just sat together in silence as Norma looked outside, watching the storm approach. _Help me_ , she screamed inwardly at whomever, whatever. _Help me, please._

* * *

At the same time in town, some people had gathered at the house of the oldest woman of Red Pine Bay. She was reputed to be an oracle; her one or other prediction of the future had come true in the past.

Right now, though, the old woman didn't even seem to acknowledge her visitors. She sat in a rocking chair, her eyes closed.

"What are we doing here?" a man whispered. "Look at her. An oracle, my ass." He snorted. "Did you know that she used to lay tarot cards on TV? Coming here was a stupid idea."

"Oh, yeah? Weren't you the one who said Caleb Calhoun had horns?" a woman hissed.

"It was dark," the man who had claimed to have seen Caleb's horns defended himself.

"Maybe she is dead," another man said.

The old woman opened her eyes and everyone gasped.

"What can I do for you?" her voice was raspy; she didn't use it often anymore. People mostly annoyed her.

They explained their concern. The decay of the town. The man who was responsible for it and whom they couldn't get rid of due to his wife. His shadow that possibly had horns. Or not.

The oracle listened to all of it with a straight face and remained silent for so long afterwards that they feared she had fallen asleep. When she finally spoke, her voice was much clearer, "He won't leave as long as she protects him. And she will protect him until another man comes along and steals her heart so that the spell he has on her will be broken."

The townsfolk murmured. Another man. Could it be that easy? They just had to find another man Norma would fall in love with? Names were dropped. Smart? George Heldens, the lawyer, could be the right guy for her. Or handsome? Then perhaps they should try to hook her up with Zack Shelby, one of the deputies. Or better yet, understanding? What about James Finnigan, the therapist?

"No," the oracle stopped their discussion, shaking her head in disbelief. "It's not that easy. It needs to happen in a certain way."

"In what way?"

"There has to be the blood of a virgin, the broken wings of an angel, and a unicorn. In that order. At night. During a partial eclipse of the moon."

Everyone froze and stared at the old woman for a brief moment before the group started talking all at once, their voices overlapping.

"A unicorn? Are you freaking kidding me?"

"This is ridiculous, what a charade."

"The blood of a virgin, no problem, but the broken wings could be a bit complicated."

"Don't be sarcastic! It was your idea to come here."

"My idea? No way!"

They headed out, still talking. No one payed attention to the old woman, shaking her head again. People. So annoying. They didn't even stay long enough so that she could warn them. The ritual she had described was dangerous. It would achieve the desired result by creating a bypass into another universe. There was the risk, though, that it might erase their entire existence since it fell into the most sophisticated category, meaning that the side effects could be gruesome. No one knew for sure because no one had successfully accomplished that kind of ritual before.

Well, they didn't deserve any better and she was old, anyway.

* * *

Three months later there was a partial eclipse of the moon, not that anyone noticed or attached any importance to it.

It was almost midnight. Norma was about to go to bed, drinking a glass of water in the kitchen, when she heard the front door. It was Norman. He was supposed to be home at 10 PM at the latest, but these days she was content with him coming home at all.

She put her glass down on the sink, the sound making Norman aware of her presence. Usually he would have more or less ignored her, but not tonight. He approached her, stopping a few steps away from her. Norma couldn't see his face in the dark.

"I'm sorry, mother," he said.

Dylan always made fun of him because Norman called her _mother_ and not _mom_. Norma didn't even notice it anymore, and right now, she was completely taken aback by the fact that he was talking to her at all of his own accord, let alone his words.

"About what?" she asked although there were plenty of choices considering his usual attitude and behavior.

"That I caused you so much trouble. I feel…," his voice sounded breathy as if he was on the verge of tears. "I feel like I'm responsible for your blackouts. You have to put up with so much already and I know I'm not the son you want me to be. I'm not like Dylan and I..."

"Norman, stop it."

Norma put her arms around him. She couldn't even remember the last time he had let her do that. It felt so good. He was getting taller every day, not a man yet but not a child anymore either.

"It's true. You did some things I disapprove of, a lot of things actually. But you are young; you make mistakes. And I will always love you no matter what. And you are for sure _not_ responsible for my blackouts in any way. Don't ever think that."

She felt his arms pulling her even closer, his breath on her neck, his lips brushing her skin. Had he just kissed her there? Sometimes there had been moments in the past when Norman had looked at her with an expression in his eyes she couldn't read, not an expression of a son looking at his mother in any case. But then the moment had been over and she had told herself she had been mistaken.

However, Norma didn't want to think about that tonight. It made her so happy that Norman was finally opening up to her. She leaned back, touching his face, wanting to ask him why of all days or rather nights he had decided to talk to her now when a beam of moonlight let her see Norman's face. It was bruised.

"Norman! What happened?" She stepped back, also seeing only now that the knuckles of his right hand were blood-smeared. "Oh my God, you're bleeding."

"It's nothing. I had an argument with some stupid guy."

"It's not nothing. Let me take care of this."

It wasn't the first time Norman had gotten into a fight. It was the first time in years, though, that he let her treat his wounds. With two teenage boys in the house, Norma always kept the first aid box within reach. Norman held still while she was disinfecting and bandaging his hand, his eyes taking on that weird expression again, never leaving her face, making their recovered closeness equally wonderful and unsettling.

The sound of car tires on gravel caught Norma's attention. She squinted through the window. There was a car down at the motel. Oh, crap! She had forgotten to turn off the vacancy sign. Did she at least lock the office? The bell there was connected to the house so that she would notice new customers without having to stay in the office all the time. It would wake Caleb. They'd had a fight earlier tonight about nothing, as usual. After their fight, he had drunk, also as usual, and was already asleep by now. Their argument would for sure continue if the bell woke him up or he would insist on having sex because that was what he always wanted after he had slept it off and Norma didn't look forward to neither of these options.

"I will go down to the motel and check what's going on."

"Do you want me to go with you?"

"No. Go to bed. It's late."

"Ok, mother."

She kissed Norman on his cheek, and again, he let her. Whatever had changed his mind, she hoped it would last. It felt so good, so normal.

* * *

Norma stepped outside. Only now she noticed what a beautiful night it was. The moon looked different, mesmerizing. She breathed in the clear, cold night air as the realization what just had happened hit her to the full extent. Norma had always been so worried about Norman. If she was honest with herself, she had already given up hope that he would find his way back to the right path, that their relationship would ever get better again and now this. Maybe everything would be fine in the end.

A grateful sob escaped her throat. Norma pulled the shawl away from her shoulders and for a moment it flapped in the wind before she wrapped it around herself again. It was her favorite shawl, a light but warm fabric with a special pattern. The way she was standing and the way the light of the moon was capturing her, her shadow had looked like an angel with broken wings when her shawl had been flapping in the wind. Norma wasn't aware of it. She sighed, pulled herself together and quickly went down to the motel.

As it turned out, she'd had neither switched off the vacancy sign nor locked the office. There was a man standing inside of it, but fortunately he hadn't used the bell. Norma had never seen the man before; he wasn't local. Tall, dark hair and eyes, handsome in a melancholic way, an air of danger surrounding him.

"What can I do for you?"

"I'm sorry. It's late. Do you have a room available?"

Her first reflex was to send him away, but something stopped her. Something about the way he looked at her, about the way that look made her feel.

"Yes, of course," she heard herself say instead. "Are you on your way through?"

"Actually I'm looking for a new place to live."

"You do?" Norma didn't know how to respond to that. She wouldn't recommend to move to Red Pine Bay to anyone.

"I was the sheriff of the town where I used to live."

No further explanation. Not why he wasn't the sheriff there anymore, not why he wanted to move, perhaps even wanted to be sheriff again. Caleb would hate that. Their conversation, if you could call it that, was as interesting as demanding. He was the epitome of stoicism, his facial expression giving away nothing.

"I need a credit card." It was late; she shouldn't wonder about the man's motives or plans but just check him in so that she could go to bed.

He pushed the card towards her across the desk and their hands touched at the same time she read his name on the card. Alexander Romero. Then time stopped. Literally. Norma was aware that she was breathing, that her fingers were still touching his, but everything else had frozen. The man didn't move anymore; the wind outside had stopped howling. That's when she saw it. Images of him and her. Embracing each other, kissing each other, passionately making love. She took a deep breath because along with the images came feelings, intense and overwhelming as if she was actually experiencing these moments, if only in fast forward. And there were more. They were laughing together, having dinner together, images from an everyday life. Everything boiled down to this: Love. What she was seeing were moments of a happy life they were sharing as a couple, connected by a love as deep as she had never experienced it before. It felt natural as if it had always been meant to be.

Norma pulled her hand away. The images stopped and the wind outside started to howl again. She just stood there, breathing hard, trying to make sense of what just had happened when she realized that he was looking at her, waiting for her to continue checking him in.

"Are you ok?" he asked with a hint of concern beneath his stoic facade.

"I'm tired," she apologized in an effort to cover the weird situation.

"It's my fault. Bothering you when it's almost midnight."

There it was again. He had a pokerface, but she sensed the concern for her well-being in no uncertain manner, was highly aware that there was so much more going on beneath the surface. How could she possibly know that? And why was he so worried about her?

"Room 11. Enjoy your stay." She had to go to bed. This was getting ridiculous. She was tired; that was it.

"Thank you."

He took the key from her and something close to a smile flitted across his face. Norma didn't notice it, though, because she was fixated on the white light that suddenly had appeared around him and that _thing_ hanging over his head in mid-air. Like a horn. He looked like… a unicorn. Kind of. Not that unicorns existed. She obviously had hallucinations.

Norma blinked. When she looked back at the man, Alexander Romero, leaving the office, white light and horn were gone. Good. No more unicorns for tonight. Then she felt it. A tremor. The entire office was shaking thoroughly. They had no earthquakes here, at least not that she knew of it. Either way, she had to go to the house and check if her sons were okay. That's when he turned around as if he wanted to say something to her before he left. Oddly enough, he didn't seem to notice that there was an earthquake going on. And even more oddly, his figure became translucent as the quake increased. Then the walls cracked, bright light flooding the office and blinding her as she was pulled back fast as if some kind of rubber band was attached to her back until...

In her rocking chair, the old woman opened her eyes and gasped. It had happened.

* * *

Beautiful landscapes fly past as Norma Bates and her son Norman are driving to their new home. White Pine Bay. Norma bought a house along with a motel in the course of a foreclosure and is adamant about creating a new life for them. A better life. If White Pine Bay is only half as beautiful as the coast road leading to it, then nothing can go wrong.

"This is the part where you say: Mother, this is beautiful. I am so happy we're moving here. You are so smart to have thought of this," she teases her son.

Norma knows that he has reservations regarding their move. Norman believes this is just one of her many starting over ideas that don't work out in the end. Well, this time she will convince him of the contrary.

"Mother, this is so beautiful. I'm so happy you're making me move here. You're so smart to force me to do things I have no say in."

Norman's reaction was to be expected. However, they are both smiling, her voice tender when she responds, "You're an ass." Only Norma can say that and make it sound like a term of endearment.

And this is how it starts. They have endured so much. Things can only get better.

Little do they know. The first days in White Pine Bay turn their world upside down already. A horrible attack on Norma as well as her violent revenge unsettle them to the core.

Norma doesn't remember her other life, doesn't know this is her second chance. That's the thing with second chances. They are not just sunshine and roses either. It's the reason why many people don't recognize them as what they are and miss them.

So when she and Norman are doing some remodeling of the motel, so to speak, and are removing carpet in the middle of the night and the sheriff and his deputy show up, they are no more than a nuisance, a blip on the radar of the never ending chaos their life seems to be. Norma doesn't even listen when they introduce themselves. Alex Romero and Zack Shelby. Not nice to meet you and now go away, please.

"We just wanted to make sure everything was alright here. We didn't know anybody had moved in yet."

That's what this Alex Romero says, and really, his words could be a friendly welcome if they were written down somewhere on paper but not the way he says them. This man is on to her for whatever reason. You would think removing carpet is not a particularly suspicious activity, especially not suspicious enough so that it would cause the sheriff and his deputy to make an appearance, but here they are.

"Oh, that's kind of you. Yeah, we're all fine."

She speaks bullshit, too.

Norma is used to men reacting to her. She is an attractive woman. The deputy lives up to her expectations, not the sheriff, though, at least not on the surface. They have some kind of staring contest. Anger encounters anger when their eyes meet, a silent struggle for control. When she holds his gaze, however, something changes. There is something about him, something about his presence that makes her skin tingle as if it remembers his touch. But that's not possible; they have never seen each other before. What is going on? It's late; she is tired. That must be it. Let alone that she's tense because there's a body they have to get rid of in the bath tub of one of the motel rooms.

They are standing outside, on the porch of the motel. A crack in the wall of the office catches Norma's attention. This motel is a wreck. She needs to remember to get that fixed. The sheriff is talking to her some more, something along the lines that she shouldn't let her son stay up that late when he has school the next day. Well, that's just great! Now he's giving her parenting advice. And yet… She keeps staring at the crack in the office wall. It reminds her of something, like a déjà vu. Norma blinks, looking at the gap, then at Alex Romero. If she ignores his obvious need to patronize her, he is quite handsome in a melancholic way – tall with dark hair and eyes, an air of danger surrounding him. The description fits perfectly, words that reverberate like an echo inside of her. The crack, the intense feeling of a déjà vu… The sheriff is still talking to her, getting increasingly irritated because she is more or less ignoring him by now as she slowly approaches the gap in the office wall, reaching out to touch it.

Light – as bright as she has never seen. Warmth – enveloping her, suffusing her with happiness. She feels safe, protected, at home as she hears a voice, the voice of that man she just met and who annoys and intrigues her at the same time. It sounds different, though, tender and loving as he says these words that make no sense, yet still, explain everything. _There's something I got to tell you. I'm actually magical._ And with this she just _knows_. Then it feels as if she is pulled back by a rubber band into the here and now. Norma gasps. Norman and the deputy look at her slightly worried. She can't blame them if she appears to be only half as distracted and confused as she is feeling. The sheriff, in contrast, seems to be oblivious to her emotional turmoil save for a slight twitch of his hand when she sways as if he considers to steady her. The lone wolf isn't as tough as he behaves.

"You wouldn't mind if we took a look inside, would you?" Alex Romero asks as Norma just looks at him and smiles.

It's not the distanced, polite smile that would be appropriate. It's her full-blown smile that has broken more than one man's heart and is a sharp contrast to her earlier behavior. She doesn't worry anymore. Not about why the sheriff is here or what he might find out.

"Let's skip this part," Norma says because, really, she doesn't want to waste time by showing him the motel. Not when she saw it all in that bright, warm light – the kiss, the ring, their vows and so much more. It was all very blurry though. She will need him to sharpen the images.

Alex Romero frowns as if he heard her say these exact words before. She could try to explain it to him. That this déjà vu he just had was one of the future and not of the past. But how explain the unexplainable when she has trouble believing it herself? Then again, her life has always been a crazy rollercoaster. Why not accept the strangest thing that has ever happened to her as what it seems to be? Predestination.

No matter what it is, though, she won't screw it up because she can't wait to get to the part where this stoic, handsome sheriff carries her upstairs into her bedroom.

She can tell him about the dead man in the bathtub later.


End file.
